Hatton J

TO: Proximity Mobile Team
FROM: James Hatton
DATE: April 21, 2010
SUBJECT: Proposal for report on Garmin's smartphone

While Garmin has always been the leader in selling portable GPS devices, they have never quite fit into the cell phone market. They have made attempts to get into the market with their older devices like the Nuviphone, but still haven't really got it.. Their new phone; the Garminfone, can squeeze them right into the market.

Need

Garmin has been losing some business because of the fairly new addition of navigation built into cell phones. Phones have been providing navigation, but most are lagging behind the capabilities and accuracy of Garmin's GPS devices. Garmin's GPS's and current cell phone fail to provide the customer with:


  • A reason to buy their GPS's in addition to their cell phones because their phones already have navigation
  • A Cheaper solution to own both a GPS and a cell phone
  • The full capabilities of a phone that will adhere to the wants and needs of Gen-Y consumers

The Garminfone is based on the Android operating system, which is proven and popular in many other cell phones. This will really give the phone a chance to shine, be more stable, and most of all help Garmin excel in the cell phone market.

Topics

The proposed report, "Garmin Fitting into the Smartphone Market", will cover the following topics:


  • Garmin's first smartphone
  • The integration of GPS into smartphones
  • The need for GPS in smartphones
  • The future of GPS in smartphones; primarily through Garmin

Sources

The following items are key sources for the report. The Garminfone is very new technology; and new information comes out every day. With the new information constantly coming out, I will need to continue to collect information as it becomes available.




Adhikari, Richard. Android Leads Garmin Down New Road. April 21, 2010. http://www.technewsworld.com/story/69826.html?wlc=1271905114&wlc=1272378015 (accessed April 24, 2010).
Richard Adhikari's article gives an in-depth look of the new Garminfone. Richard explains why the new Android operating system will help benefit Garmin in selling the devices. He also gives detailed specifications of the phones size, processing power, and features. He also offers some insight into how Garmin may fail with this phone, because they are trying to crack into a fading market; the market for GPS's on phones.


Andrew. T-Mobile Garminfone Official. April 21, 2010. http://www.tmonews.com/2010/04/t-mobile-garminfone-official/ (accessed April 24, 2010).
This article shows many pictures of the Garminfone, while also giving a review of what comes with the phone in the box. The article also helps the reader understand the phones capabilities much better than the other articles because it goes very in depth with all of the features. It also describes premium services and the web browsing capabilities; whereas the other articles do not.

Garmin. On the Go. 2010. http://jahia.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/onthego/ (accessed April 26, 2010).
This is Garmin's actual website that describes the Garminfone as well as Garmin's other smartphones. It provides a first-hand account of the actual features that are packed into the phone, as well as all of the specifications. This will be useful for comparisons of the new phone with their previous phones.

News Provider. Garminfone: Android smartphone with Garmin GPS Navigation. April 21, 2010. http://www.providingnews.com/garminfone-android-smartphone-with-garmin-gps-navigation.html (accessed April 21, 2010).
This article also describes the Android operating system that Garmin will be using with their new Garminfone. It gives a detailed description of some of the features that the phone has, and also explains how T-Mobile and Garmin teamed up to create the phone. This really gives an in-depth review of the GPS system, which the other sources do not.